Mass Effect - The Coward's Choice
by pieslinger
Summary: The war with the Reapers is over, we lost, now almost two hundred and fifty years later the races of the galaxy are all but exterminated. less than ten thousand are known to still be alive, a mix of Human, Quarian and Asari, fleeing the Reaper patrols aboard the Sol fleet. Councillor Liara T'soni has nothing left to lose, all that she once loved is long dead, but she has a plan...


Mass Effect – The Coward's Choice

Good day to one and all! Thanks for dropping by and hope you enjoy. This Mass Effect fanfic is about what would have happened if Sheppard had finally succumbed to indoctrination in the final moments in the battle for Earth allowing the Reapers to succeed. This takes place some two hundred and fifty years after the Reaper invasion, there is nowhere left to hide and the monsters are closing in.

Liara T'Soni stated in ME3 that she could possibly live to see the extinction of all advanced races in the galaxy, being the heartless bastard that I am I decided to imagine the 'possibly' hopeless situation that she finds herself. I have a pretty groovy idea of where I would like this story to go and end up, stay tuned for more! As I am going on holiday tomorrow, the next chapter should be finished in roughly two to three weeks, after this new chapters should be more routine and frequent.

I am very interested in what you, the reader, think of this fanfic. So please drop me a line, review or at least favourite to let me know I am doing well. This fanfic supports the indoctrination theory. The Shepard of this timeline was a renegade; He sided with the Quarians instead of the Geth, He chose the Salarian fleet instead of curing the genophage and had no love interest throughout his time fighting the Reapers.

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This chapter is a second draft, I initially wrote it rather hastily, trying to get it done before I left to go on holiday. I send out a thank you to OriginalAlcy, the advice is much appreciated, as only an amateur writer I welcome all criticism with open arms.

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_This is the way the world ends_

_This is the way the world ends_

_This is the way the world ends_

_Not with a bang but a whimper._

T. S. Eliot.

Chapter one – the end of things

We had come much further and achieved much more than the previous cycle, we united a whole galaxy of vastly different species and sent them to wage war together against the Reapers, our very own diversity was a weapon itself. The Battle of Earth could have been the turning point; the reapers had been ill prepared to fend off such an attack, the stories say that we had been on the very verge of winning the war. But it had not been enough, the combined fleets had burned, the collective armies had been crushed and our mightiest heroes killed or worse… turned against us through indoctrination.

Our cycle is coming to a close, the war has long been lost, and all that we had been able to do for the last few centuries was our best to slow their advance or distract them from their true targets. To hide and Hope that the Reapers would not find us; with every year that past more and more stars fell to darkness. Each civilisation that still persevered decided that it was impossible to hold any world that was known to the Reapers. And so they evacuated as many people as they could onto the remaining ships that were capable of interstellar travel and grouped into the five fleets.

The fleets were named Sol, Tikkun, Pamitha, Omega and Trebia. Each fleet named after the solar systems of each major race that contributed to the surviving peoples of the Milky Way galaxy. Well… The major races and Aria T'loak, she had tasked her people aboard her own home the asteroid Omega to install enormous engines that allowed the whole station to escape the Reaper threat. Each fleet had each gone its own separate way and fled the Reapers, doing their best to conceal their locations from the Reapers; they cut off all communication with the other fleets.

Now, two hundred and fifty seven years since the Reapers arrival in this galaxy the remaining species are all but spent. All that is known to have survived is the Sol fleet which is comprised of roughly a few hundred Asari that had managed to flee Thessia towards the end, two thousand Humans and four thousand Quarians. It hadn't been much of a surprise to the people of Sol fleet that the Quarians had fared best to the current circumstances, having spent three centuries before the Reaper invasion contained to their armada, they required no time to adjust to spending their remaining time aboard ships once more.

As for the others however, with each generation that passed their children's immune systems begun to fail. It hadn't been long before the Quarian's culture had spread to the other races; now most of the other survivors were confined to wearing full body suits like the Quarians. The only ones who didn't require this were the few Asari who were at the Matron or matriarch stage of life, as they were born before the great exodus; their immune systems were fully developed.

After centuries of resisting the Reapers, the fleet became rather resilient against things such as indoctrination. We cannot resist its power, but we have developed technologies that we use to detect the early stages, as a consequence we rarely see any sabotage attempts these days. The use of artificial intelligence is strictly forbidden; instead advanced virtual intelligences were developed and implemented throughout the fleet.

/

Liara T'Soni made her way through a series of narrow steel corridors, deeper and deeper into the bowels of the ship 'Windtalker'. The walls were grimy with dirt and rust; a number of the fluorescent lights that followed the progress of the corridor were flickering or just plain dead, the air was stale and musty with decay. Every now and then she passed through a junction where the corridor split three other directions, to the left and right were some of the living quarters of the crew.

These adjacent spaces were overcrowded with families and neighbours; some were talking, a few were working on maintenance but most were letting the time pass over them. All of these people were donned in full body suits with masks of glass, a mix of Human and Quarian. No one laughs, no one tells jokes anymore, only the murmurings of a tired and disheartened people.

A few of those closest to the doors turned and follow the progress of Liara, it isn't often these people get to see one of the suitless Asari, let alone a member of the high council; some watch with intrigue, others peer through the crowds with a mild contempt one might show a stray animal. They all think the same thing… She doesn't belong here.

As she continued her journey through the old ship, her thoughts were mainly of the task she was to carry out tomorrow, and if her choices of companions were the right ones. That's what she was doing here aboard the Windtalker; she had come here to recruit the one the other councillors would only refer to now as 'the prisoner', they believed that her name had been forfeited when she committed the crime. The 'prisoner's' true name was Anna Birch, and Liara believed she would be the most difficult to recruit given her recent history.

The Windtalker was one of the few still functioning transports from the beginnings of the Reaper war. Back then it had been tasked with ferrying munitions from the Citadel to the battlefields on Sur'kesh, now it was home to more than three hundred souls. It also served as prison for high priority criminals or those awaiting trial by the high conclave.

A little more than ten minutes of walking, she came to a doorway flanked by two Loki security mechs and VI interface. The mechs raised their pistols and aimed at Liara, who came to a halt and awaited the VI to scan her. She eyed the guards with little concern, she had nothing to hide; all ships of Sol Fleet had adopted these measures a little over a century ago in order to finally rid themselves of the indoctrinated saboteurs. Several ports on the surrounding walls emitted a faint blue light which passed over the Asari several times; pausing for a fraction of a second each time it passed over her eyes.

After a moment the VI spoke, Liara hated the voices of these security VIs, they were all direct copies as the information guide Avina that had been used aboard the Citadel in the old days. "Identity confirmed, Councillor T'Soni, I do not sense the taint of indoctrination upon you. You are cleared to pass."

At once the mechs lowered their weapons, their rusted ill maintained joints rattling as they did; Liara ignored this and advanced through the opening door. She passed into another long corridor with four cells on either side; there were no bars on these cells, just a narrow door, three inches reinforced steel. A narrow slit at eye level the only way of seeing outside from the interior of the cell. Towards the rear of the corridor Liara saw the wardens room, a Quarian sat at a desk with a number of screens feeding live stream footage from the cells cameras.

She made her way to the cell marked 337 and gestured for the warden to let her inside, the door screeched as it ascended into the ceiling, the painful sound of nails on a chalkboard. Unlike the other rooms and sections of the ship, this room was occupied by only a single inhabitant, a Human female in her early thirties standing at attention as though she had been awaiting Liara; she pondered how long the human had been standing like that.

Like most humans in this day and age, she depended on a body suit to survive; it was decorated with a silk like cloth wrapped around her waist and thighs, a pattern of crisscrossing yellow and black stripes and spirals. The material was tight and form fitting, this somewhat revealed her athletic, muscular build. She had done well to keep herself in good shape, especially having being locked in this cell for the better part of nine months.

"Commander Birch, thank you for agreeing to see me"

Unlike Quarian suits, humans tended not to have their masks clouded; the faceplate was clear glass allowing Liara to see her face. Her skin was very pale, high cheekbones and piercing blue eyes that gleamed with intelligence. For the moment her face was impassive, controlled and calm.

"I'm not military anymore councillor, they took away my rank when I was put in here." She paused a moment her eyes following Liara's progress through the cell. "I confess I was rather surprised when I heard you sought to meet with me. I am also rather curious as to why you insisted to speak to me in person." Her eyes narrowed a little and a faint grin appeared on her face before saying with detectable anger "and without any guards." That flash of anger was gone as quickly as it surfaced, settling back into her original expressionless state.

"Why does me not having guards concern you, commander?"

"It doesn't concern me, I don't like politicians, I've often wondered what I might do if I was in a sealed five by eight metre steel cell with someone I don't like. The fact you have no guards, well, that's just icing on the cake isn't it… But for the moment you have my curiosity councillor, you think I can restrain myself long enough to hear out why you are here?"

Liara didn't answer at first, pondering over the human's choice of words; she took slow careful steps throughout the woman's quarters and deliberated as how to proceed. To the right of the bunk the wall had been etched with lines and lines of writing, as she looked a little closer she saw these to be a list of names. There must have been at least two hundred; just below the list she saw a small note, the words read 'To be remembered'.

"I came here to give you an opportunity Comman-"

Birch interrupted "I told you once already councillor, I'm not military anymore." Her voice impatient now, anger and rage surfaced on her features once more.

Liara turned from the wall and gave the Human her full undivided attention. "You have been alone in solitary now for just under a year, and I shall take that into consideration as I continue now, but know this… Interrupt me again, I will leave and you shall remain in this cell alone until your sentence is complete."

Birch visibly fought back a retort, her features clearly displaying a personal battle with herself. The one side struggling to repress the other, more irrational side, after a few seconds she seemed to regain her composure. Although she glared at the Asari with defiant hate filled eyes, for a moment Liara could have sworn she saw her eyes flare a brilliant scarlet, but it must have been a trick of the light for a fraction of a second later they were blue again.

Liara had expected the Woman to be abrasive and rude; staying in solitary for such a time does that to a person. But she found the Human's lack of self-control and aggressive behaviour unnerving, especially seeing as this conversation had barely even begun.

Making a final attempt to speak to the Human, Liara took a seat in the corner of the room and gestured for Birch to take a seat as well, who after hesitating a moment took a few steps back and sat down on the edge of her bunk.

"I came here to offer you an opportunity, Miss Birch, should you accept you will be reinstated into the Alliance Marines." Liara paused for a moment, allowing Birch a chance to respond, instead she remained silent. It appeared that she had no words for this; her eyes seemed to have lost their hateful intensity to be replaced with confusion.

"I have been working on a project for some time, I can't tell you what it is right now, I can't risk the surveillance cameras of the prison overhearing us speak. What I can tell you is that I require two people to assist me; I have spent the last two months going over dossiers of over a hundred potentials. I believe you might be the right person for the job, but I need to have an answer now, if you say yes walk out of this cell today."

After waiting for a moment to make sure that the councillor was finished, Birch spoke up. "What if I say no, I'm meant to stay here until my sentence is complete right? I don't deserve a free pass; I was sentenced to rot in a cell for what I did." her voice remained steady and clear but something about it seemed unstable. "Do you even know what I'm in here for councillor? Was my 'dossier' clear on that little subject?" she looks past Liara and fixes her gaze on the names etched on the wall; it wasn't just loneliness that was wreaking havoc on this woman's mind Liara realised, it was grief.

She had hoped that time may have healed those wounds by now; regardless she would continue and discover whether or not this marine could be salvaged. Strangely an image of Sheppard entered her thoughts and then she found herself thinking of her friends aboard the Normandy. It had been a long time since Liara had thought of them, all were dead that she had for a while considered family. Most had died at Earth; a handful had endured to die in the following battles, only Mordin Solus had survived to see the birth of the five fleets. Shortly after, he had simply passed away, a victim to old age; she had been alone ever since.

"To answer your first question, if you say no, you will remain in this cell for another thirty days instead of the thirty years you were given; it took some time but I was able to sway the conclave somewhat. And to answer you're second, yes, I do know why you were imprisoned, but I never truly believed that you deserved the verdict. If I thought otherwise, I would not be here asking for your help. We've all had to sacrifice much in our struggle against the Reapers Miss Birch, not many have ever had to sacrifice as much as you, you may believe that you deserve to stay in this cell forever… that it's the right thing to do… But how could you ever live with yourself if you turned away the chance to even try atoning for what you did."

The woman seemed taken aback; she put her head in her hands hiding her face behind her hands. Liara ignored this and pressed on. "That isn't the only part of your life I know of Birch, I know about the battles for Tall Trees and the moon of Dextrome, I know about the Reaper troop transport you destroyed on Prasseris. You have done incredible things Miss Birch; you are a marine of the Alliance, and you have a real chance to wipe your slate clean.

Silence for a few heartbeats, she pulls her head up away from her hands and her eyes meet with T'soni's. "Wipe my slate clean? What for? We can't defeat the Reapers Councillor, if you think that you're more insane than I am, we lost. All we have left are a handful of frigates and freighters that are barely holding together as it is, left and right people are offing themselves and each other. There's no point anymore, we've ran our course, it's over."

"Perhaps you are right; perhaps we can't change things… But if we are doomed to failure no matter what, you have nothing to lose by joining me now."

Birch didn't speak a reply to this for a good twenty seconds; she glanced at the list once more before asking. "You really believe that what you are doing is worth the effort, councillor?"

The corners of Liara's mouth curl up slightly in a smile, she has her. "Absolutely."

"Then I'm in, like you said, what do I have to lose?"

"Marvellous, then consider yourself reinstated to the Alliance Marines, and congratulations you are hereby promoted to the rank of Captain, Miss Birch."

"Captain…" the word still had not fully registered to the human, does that mean what I think it means?"

Still smiling Liara replied. "That's right; if you follow me to the shuttle bay I will show you to your first command."


End file.
